Semiconductor devices are used in a variety of electronic applications, such as personal computers, cell phones, digital cameras, and other electronic equipment. Semiconductor devices are typically fabricated by sequentially depositing insulating or dielectric layers, conductive layers, and semiconductive layers of material over a semiconductor substrate, and patterning or processing the substrate and/or the various material layers using lithography to form circuit components and elements thereon and form integrated circuits. Dozens or hundreds of integrated circuits are typically manufactured on a single semiconductor wafer. The individual dies are singulated by sawing the integrated circuits along a scribe line. The individual dies are then packaged separately, in multi-chip modules, or in other types of packaging, for example.
Some processing steps used in fabricating semiconductors include oxidation, diffusion, doping, annealing, and chemical vapor deposition (CVD). These processes are typically performed at elevated the temperatures within heated controlled environments. CVD is a reactive process used to produce or deposit thin films of material on the wafer including, but not limited to, metals, silicon dioxide, tungsten, silicon nitride, silicon oxynitride, and various dielectrics. The uniformity of the film deposited on the wafer by CVD is affected and controlled by regulating process parameters such the temperature of the wafer, reaction chamber pressure, flow path and rate of reactant gases, and process time or duration.
Although existing devices and methods for producing or depositing thin films of material on the wafer have been generally adequate for their intended purposes, they have not been entirely satisfactory in all respects. Consequently, it would be desirable to provide a solution for forming the thin films for use in a wafer processing apparatus.